25 gennaio 2009

The “Herald Tribune” called him “talk show phenomenon” and “the darling of housewives and retirees”. But also of the world’s biggest stars, politicians and artists must be added, who guested on his daily variety show on Italy’s state television, RAI, in a unique format that mixes movie buzz, social aids, love for animals, old songs, Broadway and glamour with top ratings. Here’s the guy who’s been giving Italy lessons on American culture, traditions, style and way of life. Here’s the guy who’s introduced to our Latin fellows new American habits, personalities and even U.S.A. speaking folklore, who’s featured on Italian TV our anthems, recipes and legends with enormous success. ”Live”, two hours daily for six years. Anybody who’s somebody this side of the ocean has laughed and cried on his show: from Elizabeth Taylor to Ewan McGregor , they’ve been pouring their hearts out to this kind, middle-aged guy who fell in love with America when he was four, learned self-taught English by the time he was six by listening to pop records and is today perfectly bi-lingual to the point he has developed a very funny and interesting way of interviewing his guests by mixing Italian and American lingo so that the viewers have the sensation to understand perfectly their Yankee idols in their own language. He’s so informed on the American culture that Hollywood stars tend to forget they’re being interviewed thousands of miles from home. Charlton Heston and Whoopy Goldberg have publicly declared his is the best interview they ever had and George Lucas granted him the only interview for the launching overseas of the latest “Star Wars” venture by accepting to open his ranch to the show ! The late Sandra Dee flew six thousand miles to give him her only candid and last interview after 25 five years of silence and Sofia Loren confessed for the first time in her life an always-denied love story with Marcello Mastroianni! Name any tune from “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” to the latest Justin Timberlake hit and he’ll join along by singing you all the verses. In short, in the last thirty years America owes him the greatest publicity campaign ever to be promoted on these shores. Just days before war erupted in Iraq he mounted in his prime time show gorgeous musical numbers featuring singing and dancing marines, America’s best-loved hymns and well-remembered wartime hits so well introduced that they didn’t cause any stir among the staunchest political observers. Paolo Limiti is also a revered and popular lyric-writer with countless chart hits and songs recorded among others by Dionne Warwick, the Supremes, Donovan and Neil Sedaka plus a book on the Hollywood mystique that got rave reviews and was serialized on a major magazine. Limiti has built his own little America in his home: beside thousands of books, tapes and records and every week he has even food and sodas not available in Italy sent to him (root beer is his great passion). A better PR the “Americano of Milano” (as he’s been recently dubbed by a major magazine) the U.S. couldn’t find, that’s for sure.